I agree…working regularly and consistently through all your battles will help out. I have a mare that has dressage movement but a roadster brain, I’ve got my work cut out for me on a daily basis. Try pattern work, something to get her to concentrate and come back to you, going around and around a ring gets incredibly boring for any horse, especially snotty mares. Don’t just do the same ole w/t/c every day. Break up the monotony and have FUN, she’ll love you for it.

Try lots of turnout before you ride (think turnout all morning, ride in the afternoon) and look into a magnesium supplement.. Legal and on many of the horses I have tried it on, it really does chill them out, especially f its nervous energy.

Does she drive? If she does this is a good way to let her feel like she’s actually doing something. This worked well with my mare in the past, she liked having to pull something and use that energy up.

Lots of turnout and lunging can help. But, in my experience, these can be detrimental to your long term training goals. She needs to learn patience, which will take some on your part. And, she needs to start her workouts on a half tank of low octane fuel.

Magnesium does help with some horses. But before you start adding to her diet, check what she’s processing now. If she’s on sweet feed, drop her to oats. If she’s on oats, take her off that for a couple of weeks. Watch her weight, but most Morgans are fine on hay alone. Heck, most Morgans are fine on Air alone!

If you can afford to spend a little money, have your vet do a blood work up on her. What’s her thyroid up to? That little thing can act like an internal gas peddal.

Keep your workouts short and to the point for while. Do a lot of standing around. Really. If you want a challenge, clean her up, tack her up, get on and just stand in the middle of the ring for an hour. This is easier said, then done.

A story from my past:

Many moons ago, an elderly lady comes to us at horse show, asking about training her horse. We’d seen her show him, or at least, try to show him, several times and we suspected what might be the problem.

When she brought the horse to us, we told her to give us 30 days, and then come see him. When she did, she was amazed. He wasn’t lunged for an hour that morning. He wasn’t lunged for another hour before her lesson. He wasn’t ridden for 20 minutes before she could get on. That had been his regiment for the last 2 years with his previous trainer. All they’d done was make him rock-hard, ready to run a marathon.

Not good for a western horse meant to carry little old lady (No offense, Mary).

We took away his grain and simply hand walked him every day. We softend him up and taught him some patience. First time we got on him was the day before her return.

Easiest money we ever earned (well.., at least that first month was). Mary stayed with us for years until we moved to Muncie, and showed the shoes off him!